Here's an obscenely brief demo of grinding death metal, two tracks in barely five minutes. The band offers up some strong writing with a flurry of changes that don't come off as too jumbled or chaotic, including lots of vocal tradeoffs and layering between varying growls and screams. Ample shifts in tempo that never get too slow and handle tremolo picking and high speeds fairly well are also present. "Born of the Nephilim" tends to balance the tempos a bit better with more moderately paced and rhythmic chords, as well as some fucked up dissonant textures that are a bit more creative, making that the winner of the two... granted the intro riffing to "Infesdead" is pretty damn cool. The production is very good for a demo, but not strong enough to represent the band's talents in the end. The drumming is fast as fuck and tightly flies through fills and blasts, so of course the tones are little high up on the tautness factor, and I'm not hearing any obvious basslines either. However, the guitar tone is fairly good, and I do like the vocals. My chief recommendation would be to beef up the percussion just a little bit and then shave off some of the extra high-end tones to get more clarity and crunch going on in the mix. Let the bass hold down the lower registers to give the guitars more backbone, etc. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a black and white insert that's mainly text. The lyrics are pretty average death metal lyrics blending violent imagery with more abstract ideas and phrases: "Transcending the weakness of humanity, Left to dry and stain the earth. Chasm the thoughts of impure times washed away, Chasm the black thorns, Into the void left behind..." A very promising demo. Were the songs too long they'd fall into the trap of similar such bands by losing direction and wearing out their welcome, but these are focused bursts that come and go with a bang. Good work. I'd expect to see this band get signed at some point, they deserve it. I'm not blown away by this, but their potential is undeniable. They're a mere step or two away from hitting the mark.
[self-released]
Running time - 5:13, Tracks: 2
[Notable tracks: Born of the Nephilim, but both are pretty good]
Malebolgia - http://www.malebolgia.com
